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A Man With Mission

Simple but dedicated that makes Secretary Shrestha what he is

By KESHAB POUDEL

A man with an engineering degree, Varun Prasad Shrestha has been running civil service as a secretary since the last four years. Sherestha has already proved his efficiency and administrative skill by successfully commanding three different ministries.

He is one of the senior secretaries assigned to lead the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation at a time when it requires some hard working.

Shrestha successfully completed his assignments earlier in the Ministries like Housing and Physical Planning, Works and Transport, Youth, Sports and Culture and Population and Environment.

"We need strong institutional mechanism to pave smooth functioning of civil service," said secretary Shrestha who joined civil service in 1965 as a civil engineer at the Department of Roads.

Afte passing the Bachelor of Engineering (civil) in 1965 with top score, Shrestha did his masters in Engineering in 1971 from the United States of America.

In his long career in civil service, Shrestha was promoted to the second class in 1977 and positioned as a deputy director general of Department of Roads.

Shrestha was promoted to joint secretary in 1992 and positioned as a director general of Department of Roads. Later, he was transferred to Nepal Engineering Consultancy Ltd as an executive director.

"There should be working atmosphere in the ministry and bureaucracy should be given proper authority to act," says Shrestha.

During Shrestha's quest to reach the post of secretary, he has seen many ups and downs. He was promoted to the post of Acting Secretary at the Ministry of Housing and Physical Planning in October 1994. After few months of service, he was transferred to the Ministry of Works and Transport in 1995.

Born on 15th October 1943 in Tansen Palpa, Shrestha was promoted to full secretary only in January 1998 and posted at the Ministry of Population and Environment.

"The role of bureaucracy is very important to successfully carry out development activities. There needs to be a sectoral coordination in the ministry. One of the major challenges of bureaucracy is to deliver the goods to the needy people," said Shrestha.

To him, being a secretary is no more than being a public servant. He believes that his job is to bridge the gap between people and politicians.

Wherever he was positioned, Shrestha always gave priority to the work of the common people. "I think one of the most important functions is to serve the interest of the common people," said Shrestha.

Dilly-dallying is one major challenge in civil service."We must develop a system to address the problems of the common people."

"In bureaucracy, every employee has his\her role and he is assigned to complete the work within a given time table. In our country, the salary of employees is very low and there is nothing to inspire them."

He is a true believer in working culture and its power to change the country. Due to his busy schedule these days, Shrestha forgets even simple things to do.